Articles, comment and meditations on power, oppression and political mindfulness

Thursday, 31 December 2015

Farewell to the Media Lens message board

Time has been called, alas, at the Media Lens message board. Postings will end on 4 January 2016. The page will be sadly missed by contributors and visitors alike. Over the last 14 years, the board's valiant editors have hosted a dynamic and fast-flowing space for comment, links and discussion. I've been around the site since 2004, and, like others, have gained enormously from it as a source of news, information and opinion. It's been a deeply educational and inspiring place. Amid daily threads exposing our corporate and service media, it's been an immediate go-to resource, with vibrant engagement on every notable issue, conflict and event, from the invasion of Iraq to the bombings of Gaza, from the crisis of climate change to the rise of alternative media.Lately, the editors have felt unable to cope with the volume, intensity and liability of board correspondence as they endeavour to write their hallmark Alert articles and manage ML's other major online output. Their concern and decision to close the board, in these regards, is understandable. Along with many other contributors, I'd like to thank them for their great dedication, patience and humour in running the board, and wish them well in their efforts to strengthen the ML project. I hope people will continue to follow ML's vital output at the main ML page, via Twitter and Facebook - problematic, yet still valuable forms of media outreach - and through ML's many fine books. The editors have intimated that they may maintain an abbreviated board for their own messages, comments and links. I particularly hope so, given the important familiarity of the site for so many visitors.Most of the board's regular and long-time contributors have now taken 'residence' at (the temporary-titled) Lifeboat News. I wish them and arriving others well in their/our founding efforts to develop a similar ML-minded community, offering stimulating information and respectful discussion.Best wishes and a Happy New Year to all.

12 comments:

Used to be an interesting board, but has become rather narrow and unpleasant in tone in recent years. You get the sense that it's only hardcore followers who post there now. And I suspect this is the real reason it's closing down (not the ostensible reason about difficulties of moderating - that's always been the case, and hasn't really escalated). Shame really.

Anonymous, 31 Dec 2015 6.29. The board always oscillated between different levels of aggravation and inspiration. I don't see much difference overall with 2001/2002. Just these blips where some people went over the top.

It got by far most unpleasant during the IBC saga, but overall was an excellent place to be. Don't at all agree with the 'hardcore' comment.

I have enjoyed reading the comments there in the past, however I felt that in recent years the board had become too skewed towards some contributors' conspiracy theories. Needless to say, that's a long way away from the careful institutional analysis of the propaganda model that ML is based on.

Anonymous said: "Used to be an interesting board, but has become rather narrow and unpleasant in tone in recent years. You get the sense that it's only hardcore followers who post there now."

This view doesn't seem to gel with objective reality. Overall, the MLMB has remained, till the very end, an incredible source of invaluable insights and debate and helpful information. Any cyber community will have its fools, imposters, trolls. Some unwisely took the baits. I myself confess at least some guilt in that regard. But overall, the MLMB record has been exemplary.

As for Joe D's comment - No. The MLMB never became skewed towards some contributors' conspiracy theories. What you mean to say - if you are a fan of objectivity - is that there have been contributors hounding us with conspiracy theories, but they rarely went unchallenged. To say the MLMB became 'skewed' is a crazy and unfair statement.

It is I. The Turtleman. That foul-mouthed, disgraced amphibian. I was sick, but now I'm well and there is much work to do.Against stupidity, even the gods contend in vain. I tried to slay the ideologues, fascists and trolls, and in the end got burned at the stake. Why? I contended in vain. No more. No more! I have emerged from the swamp to dwell on the land. Meet the new Tortoise! See y'all at LifeBoat!Tortoise

Should I assume those hounding the board with conspiracy theories were of the "Mossad false flag/ISIS is a Zionist plot/WTC7 was a controlled demolition" brigade? Those people are infuriating dullards.

It's always a pity when the opportunity to comment alongside an internet text is lost. But one can well understand the rationale for closing such a board on a controversial site which has limited resources to moderate such contributions.I wonder if a relaunch of commenting which excluded anonymous/pseudonymous commenting, plus a conscious effort to foster community moderation might be the way forward? There are technical solutions out there...Signed,Douglas Carnall :)